Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the discipline that compels marketers to devise strategies to find their way in the brutal jungle of digital marketing, where organic traffic is all you can get without investing in campaigns, and you compete with millions of other web pages for the privilege to appear on the first search results page. While you’re busy implementing meticulous and comprehensive content marketing techniques to enhance your website’s visibility in search engines, there are some absolutes in search engine optimisation that you need to know in order to make your website grow – not only legally, but also ethically and sustainably. Beyond the SEO myths and falling prey to the lies told by self-proclaimed gurus, there are definitive boundaries that you ignore at your peril. Be it a technical limitation enforced by search engines, or an inherent feature of the web itself, you have to respect these boundaries if you want to keep your website out of search engines’ cold storage. This is why it’s important to be aware of these boundaries. By doing so, you’ll have a greater chance to find those secrets hidden inside search engine optimisation that can help you optimise your efforts and stay away from a costly mistake.
In this article, I will outline six instalments on the absolute essentials of SEO. These are the areas that have a demarcation of boundaries, however badly you might just crave to cross them. And believe me, I can empathise. From keyword density to meta description length, we’ll carry out a virtuous crusade to help you understand and respect the limits. By the end of this article, you will be able to recognise instances of over-optimisation in order to give your site the balance of optimisation (yin) and restraint (yang) that is key to its success and compliance with search engine standards. So, let’s begin with keyword density.
Keyword Density – Striking the Right Balance
Another foundational aspect of SEO, however, would be what experts call keyword density: the percentage of keywords that you use on your webpage out of your total word count. The use of keywords is obviously a necessary part of ranking and optimising your content, but search engines such as Google may penalise sites that have overused their keywords by engaging in something known as keyword stuffing. As search engine technologies have evolved over time, keyword pugging has shifted from being an exact match keyword focus to a more semantic, contextual and relevant focus, an emphasis on context being more important than the sheer repetition of keywords. A recommended keyword density, for instance, is 1-2 per cent: basically, one or two keywords for every 100 words but, to clarify, a better approach would be to focus on allowing for natural language flow rather than your percentage. At the end of the day, SEO will always aim at the ‘people side’ of online publishing, focusing on catering to the users more than the search engines. In a word, remember that content is king. Search engines are clever; good writers are savvy. Readers are the ones that should matter most, and readers, according to SEO, can now be trusted to do so. As technology advances, search engines will continue to develop ways of deciphering and interpreting content; the quest to trick and manipulate these search engines, by contrast, will continue to prove as defunct today as curled up rolls of mid-20th-century microfilm.
Of course, failing to put any limits on keyword density risks offending the user who will not want to wade through content that shouts at them about your business! On top of that, failing to follow good keyword use principles risks suffering in the search engines. Greasy use of keywords makes content feel forced and thus unnatural in an online world that is awash in similarly unsure writing. In this regard, search engine algorithms, especially after Hummingbird and BERT, do much to flag keyword-stuffed content for penalty action. This is why, as an SEO today, you don’t write after keyword-stuffing research – you’re just not allowed. You have to write, but the keywords need to be worked in organically and in such a way that they add to the quality of the content rather than distracting from it. Businesses today continue to do well in search because they never lost their focus on what worked, and never sacrificed quality at the altar of optimization. The lesson for them is clear: remain committed to producing high-quality content, and you’ll continue to reap search engine rewards.
Meta Descriptions – The Ideal Length and Content
The usual text you see under the title tag on search engine result pages (SERPs) is a meta description, a summary of what page content is about. It’s supposed to be between 150-160 characters, or its likely to be snipped by the search engines. These are not direct ranking factors, but they do affect the click-through rate (CTR), so they’re a vitally important part of on-page SEO. The challenge is that they need to have the keywords of choice, but these words need to be packaged in a way that people want to click on it.
It is important to stay within characters or else there is a high chance to miss out on user engagement, as otherwise the meta description will be cut down by the search engines – which means that some important information could have been removed from it, which might willingly lure users into the article. On the other hand, if the description is very short it might not seem detailed enough to be interesting. Moreover, omitting keywords from the descriptions will make it less effective in attracting users’ clicks. Because people often seek information based on terms that were written by them, according to marketing specialist and blogger Robyn Tippins. To conclude, to create a persuasive and effective piece of copy, it is a key to keep it within the characters and it is necessary not to forget about keywords.
Title Tags – The Power of Precise Titles
Title tags are one of the single most important on-page SEO affctors and must be used with consideration for both SERPs and CTR. The apparent consensus seems to be by expert SEOs is that 50-60 characters including spaces will ensure it read visibly, as nine out of ten times longer title tags will be cut off on most SERPs. The title tag should be descriptive, keyword rich and relevant in regards to the content of the actual page. It is important to include your keyword as or near the beginning of the title. Well-crafted titles can greatly increase CTR because they are the very beginning of a user’s first impression of your page.
The single most common mistake I see in title tag SEO is neglecting them entirely. Of course, the purpose of most SEO optimisation is to improve your ranking in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). But if your title is so long that it gets truncated in results, you could be cutting off the very thing that is most likely to convince a user to click through. Conversely, if your title is too short, you risk not conveying enough of what the page is about or the value of venturing inside. Not to mention, failing to include your primary keyword in a title tag will deem it less relevant in context when your page is compared with others. As you can see, whatever is in that little bit of code advice that makes up your title will need to be optimised for search engines and human users alike. It’s a tricky tightrope to walk, but imperative that you make keyword placement palatable.
Content Length – Quality Over Quantity
With regard to content length, due to its provocative associations with content creation, the issue of whether long content ranks better has been debated most fervently in the SEO community. There is an element of truth to the argument that pages can and do rank well on the search engines, and yet display poor performance in terms of user interaction and engagement, but this results from the fact that the content is long – not because it is long. The converse, of course, is equally true: poor performance can just as readily be traced back to fluff, filler or the excessive reiteration of previously mentioned ideas. Once again, length alone is not the issue this time because quality outweighs it: pages that provide thorough, in-depth coverage of an issue are more likely to satisfy the user’s search intent than those of equal length but lighter on content.
You could get penalised by search engines for being too short, but also for being too long. Bottom line: length without quality means you’re not doing yourself any favours with search engines or the readers you want to attract with your content. To understand what I mean when I say ‘cover the subject’, let’s assume you want to rank for ‘How often to feed a puppy’. In this case, I’d try to answer every reasonable question a reader could have about the puppy-food topic. If your site is about puppies, and you want to rank well on all the best puppy-feeding questions, then you want to rank and be found for every plausible subset of interest. Does that mean you should write 2,000 words? Or only 500? The answer is, ‘Go until you’re done.’ Don’t think in terms of words. Focus on covering the relevant topic in depth instead. You’re likely intending (and hopefully succeeding) in giving your reader the value they’re seeking, with the content not appearing to be too hurried to produce. Your goal should be to cover the subject thoughtfully, not to churn out words to meet an arbitrary number (more on this in the next section). To recap: If you care about organic traffic and want your content to rank well, then depth matters. Very, very much. However, while putting out more content usually leads to better results in search than adding little here and there, there are diminishing returns involved.
Link Building – Quality vs. Quantity
Link-building is another SEO strategy that is alive and well. Just as it was a decade ago, backlinks from authoritative sites are still strong signals that a site is credible and relevant. But the secret to achieving good SEO with links is quality rather than quantity. Google’s algorithms continue to evolve and get better at sussing out what makes a good backlink, and a few good links from good sites can be far more valuable than dozens of poor-quality backlinks. Low-quality backlinks mean penalties, and penalties mean drops in rankings.
Zeroing in on link quantity over quality can seriously harm your SEO strategy. Given their proficiency in identifying manipulative link-building practices such as link buying and link-exchange schemes – often referred to as ‘spammy links’ – search engines can easily impose penalties for such practices (and it’s incredibly difficult to recover from these penalties). Rather than focusing on acquiring as many links as possible, such penalties give SEOs incentive to focus their efforts on earning links from high-authority, relevant sites through ethical means that do not include manipulation or link purchasing. In other words, SEO efforts focused on link-earning will strive to create the kind of quality content that other sites would want to link to naturally. This is a far cry from the manipulative strategies of yesteryear. Many SEOs today believe that such tactics play a crucial role in improving rankings, but these strategies cut both ways. Not only can such practices result in penalties for your site, but you’ll also miss out on building a stronger and much more sustainable link profile over time.
Page Load Time – Speed is Essential
Page load time is important on two fronts, user experience and SEO. Google has publicly stated page speed as a ranking factor, and bounces as well as user satisfaction and user interaction is negatively impacted by slow pages.
On average, a one second delay in page response can result in seven per cent reduction in conversions, according to Kissmetrics. So, every get and post on your website should be timed to ensure it is as fast as possible and profitable for you, both in terms of retaining customers and retaining your rankings with the search engines.
An overall neglect of the page load time limit can lead to the domino effect on the website performance, as well as the positive or negative SEO outcomes. Since the speed of the page load time is directly connected with the users’ satisfaction, a slower load time will lead to higher bounce rates and lower user engagement. As a result, the search engines will register the low quality of the user experience that the website provides and reduce its rankings, traffic and conversions. To avoid that, constantly monitor your site’s load time (and the take appropriate actions) to ensure it is fast enough. It is essential to keep in mind that quality SEO does not operate in a silo: if your website pages cannot fully load, you may be unable to rank while offering a ruinous user experience. Simple steps such as image optimisation, cache or the reduction of HTTP requests can make a noticeable difference in your site’s performance.
Conclusion
Understanding and respecting the limits of SEO is crucial for long-term success in digital marketing. While it is important to optimize your website for search engines, overstepping these boundaries can lead to penalties, reduced rankings, and a poor user experience. By focusing on maintaining a balance between optimization and restraint in areas such as keyword density, meta descriptions, title tags, content length, link building, and page load time, you can ensure that your SEO efforts are both effective and sustainable. Adhering to these limits not only protects your site from potential penalties but also enhances its overall performance, ultimately driving better results from your SEO strategy.